Broz

Folding rear seats that allow pass-thru of a large tripod/snowboards etc.
Oh, and a sunroof option is a must. Just my 2 cents!
Waiting Patiently...

Broz
Vancouver, BC

FritzMan

As an avid Mountain biker, I would have loved to see a larger trunk opening and full split seats. I've been studying the back seat pics, and it appears that each rear seat is individually upholstered, rather than one continuous back rest. This could insinuate that each of the rear seats could fold, just not the centre section. Either way, I'll probably have get a light duty custom fabricated hidden hitch installed and a hitch-mounted rack.

liondogs

It would be nice to have the rear seats fold forward. You could get some long items in the car in a pinch. You may not get a mountain bike in there but who wants a dirty bike in their new clean RX8 anyway

my03_rx8

i would rather have the hidden hitch to put my bike on then sticking it tn my car but then again i got a truck for that stuff
but the floddowns would be nice

senorcornhole

i'm impressed that this is a REAL 4 person car and not another 2+2. the fact that people in the back won't be cramped is a major selling point for me. i naturally assumed that the seat could fold down for extra storage in the back, if not occupied by passengers. either way, i've been nothing but impressed by this car, and am looking forward to its release.

does anyone have any idea as to the tentative release date of the car for the 2003 year?

thanks

Johnny

My back seats will be coming off for the stereo system i'll be investing in :D

Jerome81

The seats will almost certainly have to fold down individually, if at all. The central Backbone Chassis frame runs down the entire length of the cabin, including the rear, and thus would not allow the seats to fold in one piece. Individually is better anyway, you can at least have 1 person in back with one side folded down.

It also would not surprise me to see that the seats don't fold at all. By putting a big hole there, you give up chassis rigidity. Mazda wants this car to be very rigid. That combined with the lack of the B pillar and the necessity to move that lost rigidity to other points in the car may mean the loss of any folding rear seats.

YC-6

A pass-through is a must-have. Isn't the point of this design for more people/cargo space? Not having a pass-through would be in direct conflict with the purpose of the car.

liondogs

If Mazda fails to put a pass-through on the car it would be a mistake. One of its selling points is that the car is a "practical" sports car.

I believe that Mazda can put a pass-through in the car and retain chassis stiffness. When Mazda was designing the car there were engineers in Mazda that did not want to install suicide doors. They thought that they could not meet federal crash worthiness tests with them. The president of Mazda told the engineers that Mazda was an engineering company. He told them to engineer a solution to the problem. If they can figure the door issue out they should be able to figure out the pass-through.

ARCHER

Compromised structural regitity is a legitimate issue with rear folders. The numbers on non-folding as opposed to folding were enough to scare me away from the option on my current car. A similar, although much less concerning argument can be made for sunroofs as well. Not to mention the fact that the latches on the seats open the door for possible rattles.

liondogs

I will still put my faith in Mazda engineers to solve this problem and provide us with a car with folding rear seats, a sunroof, and excellent chassis stiffness. Any company that can engineer a good rotary engine should be able to do the other stuff too.

ARCHER

Rigidity is compromised by rear folding seats in current E46 platform (a very rigid chassis) and it will be compromised in the RX-8 as well.

Rear folders should be optional, IMO.

spwolf

blah, its the hatchback, so I dont doubt the seats will fold

spwolf

actually wait, is it a hatchback? cant really see from the pics

DANNER

Folding seats are definately a plus. I'm also an avid mountain biker and a skier. I wouldn't want to spoil the looks of this car with a roof rack.

Folding rear seats are always useful for when you need al little more space. I also hope that if they fold down that they open the space entirely. I owen a Geo prism and when the seats folded down there was a huge arch that prevented larger items from going in.

Anyway, it's not critical for me: my RSX is a hatchback, so if I get the RX8 I'll still have a good vehicle for a little extra cargo.

aco

Archer, the compromise in chasis rigidity in the E46 is minimal. Easily corrected with a rear cross brace. According to Mazda and R&T, and probably other articles, the RX-8 chasis is even stiffer than the previous RX-7, which was known to loosen your fillings.

Anyway, this is not an all out track car. Some street compliance is probably a good idea.

My $.02.

DANNER

I agree. The RX-8 will be a fast, good looking, yet pratical car. I think Mazda is creating a new market for itself with this car.

That said, they probably will sacrifice some performance characteristics for practicality, including fold down rear seats.

DoubleD

I doubt it..in the R&T article they say that there is room for 2 golf bags in the "TRUNK"....but hey you never know

spwolf

it looks like it could be a hatchback... notice how they have never shown pics with trunk lid open... based on current pics, it would be hard to put anything into it isnt a hatchback...

but again, it might not be... as long as there is"decent" trunk, I dont care... you wont be able to fold seats much anyway, notice that they have big central whatever you call it going from front to back (hence only 4 people max)...

Grimace

Its not a hatchback. It has a regular trunk. From some pics from the detroit auto show, you can see the trunk line.

Besides, if it were a hatchback, some article would have pointed it out for sure. And the R&T article did say "trunk" as said above.

MazdaMan182

If you want to fold down the back seats, buy a damn minivan or hatchback, dumb@ss!!

*Warning #1 - Flaming is not tolerated* -moderator

NOTA V6

What's with all the hostility on this forum lately?

Is one really a dumb@ss for wanting a hatchback? I better look into selling my RX-7 to a dumb@ss soon if that's the case. :D

spwolf

I was wondering about that.. there are like 5 posts per day, and 3 are just hostile rants

Grimace

What the hell is wrong with folding rear seats?

Maybe you'd be happier with a 2 seater, so you could avoid the issue altogether. May I suggest a Fiero?


There is no reason for this stupid hostility here and in the other posts. The RX-8 is a practical sports car. It has 4 doors and useable rear seats for 6 ft. adults. Why shouldn't it have folding rear seats too?

spwolf

thats just funny

:D